Successfully integrating refugees

Skedsmo kommune

Successfully integrating refugees

Refugees face an enormous task when entering a new country. A new life must be built in an unfamiliar place, with a new language and a new culture where everything is just different from home. How can the local municipality facilitate this transition?

Unleash the potential

Reasearch conducted by Østlandsforskning on behalf of KS concludes that early exposure to working life, refugee participation in planning, close follow‑up and a multi‑cultural team of advisors are crucial to the success of an introduction programme.

For Skedsmo municipality, the goals were clear ‑ more refugees employed on a permanent basis through a successful introduction programme. An introduction programme that provides everything from language skills to housing, integration activities, job training or preparation for education.

Mindshift conducted an assessment of the municipality’s introduction programme, including its content, process efficiency and IT system support, with a particular eye on improved effectiveness of the programme for the refugees. The report pin‑pointed 11 specific barriers to better performance.

Using principles from «design thinking», Mindshift designed an improved introduction programme to remove the barriers and mapped out an action plan for execution, all of which received much acclaim from both political and administrative leadership in Skedsmo.

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Integration of new refugees means a lot to our welfare society. It provides individuals an opportunity to quickly become part of the local community and create their own good lives.

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Gunn Marit Helgesen, former President of the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS)